The search traffic that is generated for cars unveiled at the various auto shows is a good barometer of how well the car was received by consumers. It's too early to see how well the searches will translate into sales, but new introductions like the Toyota FJ Cruiser and Saturn Sky have already generated a significant number of consumer email leads to dealers.

As the major market auto show season nears an end, it seems that we have some clear winners among consumers as far as new vehicle introductions are concerned. It will be interesting to see if consumer interest in these vehicles is sustained into the second and third quarters.

Joe Wiesenfelder

The fact that we have experienced such a large rebound in site traffic is significant not only for sites like cars.com, but it certainly represents a positive start to 2006 for the automotive industry as a whole. In fact, many manufacturers already are reporting better-than-expected sales in January.

Joe Wiesenfelder